Por Vida! program brings healthy options to San Antonio hospitals

Program focuses on nutritional makeup of menu items.

February 22, 2012

Feb. 22—The hospital cafeteria at University Hospital, in San Antonio, recently began offering Por Vida!-approved lunch and dinner entrees that are low in calories, fat and sodium. The inaugural meal was was Tuscan herb cod with green beans and parsley potatoes, which is also served at University Health System's Texas Diabetes Institute and Robert B. Green campus downtown.

“Our mission is to take the best care of our patients,” Dr. Bryan Alsip, executive vice president and chief medical officer, told the San Antonio Express-News. “We thought Por Vida! would be a good opportunity to take advantage of that.”

Launched in 2009, Por Vida! is a program of the Healthy Restaurants Coalition. Its member offer at least one entrée that contains less than 700 calories, 23 grams of total fat, eight grams of saturated fat and 750

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